Night And Day
by eolhcsullivan452
Summary: "It was strange, she thought. When you're writing something and add an extra letter to a word by accident and try to erase it, there's still an empty space where it used to be leftover. That was exactly how she felt right now. Empty." During Crisis Core.


**Disclaimer:** As much as I wish I owned the adorable Zack, I don't. Or anything associated with Square sadly. But I DO own my smile:)

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!** Haha, incase you haven't figured it out; this fic is for my dear friend's birthday. Hope you like it sweet heart. I worked really hard to write you a good story, I know you like these 2. On with the story;)

Night And Day

The two were as different as night and day. And that wasn't an opinion. That was stating a fact. The thought could be proven as soon as anyone walked in a room with them. Zack Fair wore an all black SOLDIER 1st class uniform. Where as Aerith wore a _pink_ dress. Correction, she was _going_ to wear a pink dress eventually. It had been Zack's idea. He didn't care that the two of them were different. Maybe even worlds apart. And truth be told, neither did she. Actually she liked it. She wasn't popular at school. And everyone thought she was strange. She tried not to let it bother her though. The other kids didn't understand what she was going through. That she heard the voice of the planet. And there were times when she wished she could make them see that she wasn't insane. Well, actually telling people that the planet talked to her would most likely label her insane, but still… Aerith felt that having Zack in her life proved to her fellow classmates that she wasn't a disaster case. She could get an amazing, even famous boyfriend too. She'd love to see the look on some of the girls' faces if they knew that she was dating THE Zack Fair, SOLDIER 1st class. But she didn't love him because he was famous. She just truly loved him. And she could never tell anyone that she was dating him. If Shinra found out they could have Zack killed for being with the last cetra. Even though it seemed that the Turks were already aware. She couldn't help but roll her eyes. They _were_ a strange bunch. But still she couldn't take the risk. After all her father… Alright, she was getting off task. Where was she? Oh, yes Zack and her differences. She loved them, another reason being romance novels. What girl doesn't dream of finding their soul mate. And they do say opposites attract. And they were indeed total opposites. And yet, she found herself wanting to be more like him.

Her boyfriend was so outgoing it was hard not to find some confidence yourself when you're around him. But ever since he left for a mission one month ago it seemed she strived to be even more like him. When you first start dating someone it's common for the first thing for you to do is hold hands. It wasn't any different for them either. And the first thing she noticed was all the calluses on his hands. And as many people would not have thought. She actually liked them, the roughness of them. Her hands were perfect in comparison. And she hated it, she felt like it made her seem to innocent, weak, a push over. So, she actually started _smiling _when she'd get more scratches on her hands from the flowers. Eventually she too, would have calluses.

"More like him." The girl thought.

One thing no one seemed to know about Aerith Gainsborough was that she truly loved to write. Well technically she loved to write to Zack. Putting so much detail into all of her letters so when he would get back he wouldn't have missed a thing. So, maybe she wasn't some award-winning author. But she loved writing to him, and when she did she felt like the said, winning author. And as strange as it was she was happy when she'd have to get a new sheet of paper because blood from her hands due to the flowers dropped on it.

Whenever that happened she would still think "More like him."

It was killing two birds with one stone if you will. It was strange, ever since meeting Zack her personality had been constantly changing. The timid girl she once was being traded with almost an entirely different person. She liked who she was becoming, loved Zack but she knew enough after watching the few movies she could in the slums that it was dangerous to put your heart on the line like that. Especially for her. No especially for him. Zack protected her all the time but what he didn't know was that by somewhat breaking his heart that she was protecting him. Something else she couldn'tell someone.

A half a month flew by and there was no word from Zack. She didn't really expect anything. He was very busy and he wasn't exactly great with painting a picture with words. But still he would reply back as often as he could relaying a few words about how he was bad with words, and missed her and would be home soon. The cetra knew that there was no guarantee of how long these missions lasted. The underlying feeling of something being a miss though didn't seem to want to go away. After all he had left a month and a half ago, but she tried not to let her fears consume her. So she did what she did best. Wrote out her feelings, to Zack. She must have tried starting it a million times, but never found a winning intro. It was strange she thought. When you're writing something and add an extra letter to a word by accident and try to erase it, there's still an empty space where it used to be leftover. That was exactly how she felt right now, empty.

She didn't like to admit it but Zack gave her hope, and without him around it just dissappeared into thin air. But she did her best to hide it. She didn't want to be some relying, obsessed girlfriend. Haha, obsessed that was a strange word to choose. She couldn't get the swordsman off of her mind. Even before she'd known that he was with SOLDIER she had been drawn to his strange eyes. They were just unique.

"Color of the sky, right?" She wouldn't have known. She'd never seen the sky, and the thought of it scared her. But his eyes didn't. And neither did his SOLDIER title like she initially thought it would. His eyes actually seemed to wash over and calm her. She'd seen fake skies in movies and knew what it was supposed to look like. And instead of his eyes reminding her of the blue never ending area in the world, the sky reminded her of his eyes. How could she ever fear the sky, when she couldn't fear him? The answer, was simply she couldn't. She couldn't fear anything associated with Zack, it was a great feeling. And yet a dreaded one. What if in the end her heart got broken? Would she hate the sky again? Hate him?

She shook her head. She could never hate Zack; he'd saved her in so many ways. And she could never hate the things associated with him either.

"Ouch!" The girl involuntarily winced in pain as a particular very sharp flower cut her ring finger. And she couldn't do anything to get rid of the smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She put the flower lightly on the floor and kissed it. As soon as Zack got back he was going to want to execute mission "Midgar full of flowers, wallet full of money." And just maybe if she kissed the flowers she would full the slums full of love too. It was a nice thought. Hmmm… she'd been wanting calluses on her hands forever now, and had received one on her ring finger. Was it a sign? She sure hoped so!

Looking behind her she gave the flowerbed a once over.

"Hmmm… if we're really going to fill the slum full of these, we'll run out of flowers soon, better plant some more." She thought to herself. Making sure her bow was securely tied she headed out the church doors toward her house to pick up some seeds, when she ran into someone she wasn't expecting; Tseng. Come to think of it she hadn't seen him it seemed since Zack left for his last mission.

"Aerith, you look well." Tseng smiled at her, and of course she had to return his gesture.

"Thank you, you do too. Tseng, do you think you could get some letters to Zack? I know you told me awhile ago that if I had any you…"

She didn't get to finish though. Because Tseng started laughing uncontrollably it seemed. Anyone who knew him also knew that was _not_ one of his characteristics. And to put it lightly it was making Aerith a bit uneasy.

"His flight was delayed a few minutes. He should be here soon. You can give them to him yourself, Aerith."

For some reason she didn't believe that. Which was strange, he usually was a straight shooter. Why, would he be lieing to her about that? Then again Zack and Tseng were friends, would he really lie to make her feel better?

"Oh, I see. Thanks anyway." She didn't do well to hide the disappointment in her voice. And started sadly walking back to her church forgetting why she'd come out anyway. She was almost there when she ran into someone else. Literally this time.

"I am _so_ sorry." The person said, when Aerith realized she knew that voice.

"Zack?" She said whilst trying to get a look at this person and instantly smiled when she did.

"Aerith!?" He said in a tone showing much how like a puppy he was. Not even needing to say anything to confirm who the person was, Aerith felt the familiar sensation of Zack's hand slipping into hers. But this time it was different. His hands were softer? When he helped pull her to his feet she got a chance to look his hand over and noted that he was wearing lotion. Her eyes wandered to meet his. But noticed that his eyes were stuck on her hand.

"You have calluses!?" the boy said, his voice showing a lot of concern.

"You're wearing lotion?"

Then for the first time in a month and a half there eyes met again. It was amazing how those eyes, even more so him were the cause of a lot of her fears. But also made them leave all too easily. But much like their feet, their faces couldn't hold out and they both burst out into laughter. They were as different as night and day, and they loved that. But they were also alike. And they loved that even more.

--

--

**Author's Note:** Yay, FINALLY over my writer's block! Man, that's a relief. Let me tell you this is like my FAV pairing, and it's really my cup of tea to write for them. LOL. Although it's a little different from what I usually write for them. Man, I haven't written any Zack/Aerith lately. Which is really shocking! My fics of them are usually all goofy and before Zack went on the Nibelheim mission. At first this was kind of going to be sad, and be after Zack left for Nibelheim. But about ¼ of the way through I changed it. I didn't want a sad one. Especially for Laura's B-day So, I don't know which mission he was on in this fic. Use your imagination;) As I said earlier this fanfic is for my friend Laura who is 25 today! I really hope you liked it. I know FFXII and Vaan and Penelo is your favorite. But I'd had writer's block forever and the Muse just smacked me with this. And after having writer's block I was afraid to try anything else, that I wouldn't get any ideas or it'd be terrible. Hope you don't mind I'd also like to majorly thank hopeh-wa for beta reading this. It's actually rather funny Qwi-Xux a.k.a. Laura is usually my beta reader but I wanted to surprise her with this, so obviously I couldn't have her beta it. LOL. And I don't trust myself to go without a beta yet, so the lovely hopeh-wa did it for me. Major thanks hun, and oh Laura, major hugs. I hope you liked it. Happy B-day. Anyway, hope everyone liked it. Until next time. May the light guide you;)


End file.
